| Les Ferdinand | ||
| Personal information | ||
|---|---|---|
| Full name | Leslie Ferdinand | |
| Date of birth | 12 August 1966 | |
| Place of birth | London, England | |
| Height | 5 ft 11½ in (1.81 m) | |
| Playing position | Striker | |
| Youth clubs | ||
1985–1986 |
Southall Hayes |
|
| Senior clubs1 | ||
| Years | Club | App (Gls)* |
| 1986–1995 1987–1988 1988–1989 1995–1997 1997–2003 2002–2003 2003–2004 2004–2005 2005 2005–2006 |
Queens Park Rangers → Brentford (loan) → Beşiktaş (loan) Newcastle United Tottenham Hotspur West Ham United Leicester City Bolton Wanderers Reading Watford |
163 (80) 3 (0) 24 (14) 68 (41) 118 (33) 14 (2) 29 (12) 12 (1) 12 (1) 0 (0) |
| National team | ||
| 1993–1998 1998 |
England England B |
17 (5) 1 (1) |
|
1 Senior club appearances and goals |
||
Leslie "Les" Ferdinand MBE (born 12 August 1966[1] in Paddington, London) is a former English footballer. He is best known for his time at Tottenham Hotspur, Newcastle United and Q.P.R. , during which period his powerful and elegant centre forward play and ability in the air resulted in a number of appearances for England. He is the cousin of current Premiership players Rio and Anton Ferdinand and is popularly nicknamed Sir Les. He was made an MBE in the 2005 Queen's Birthday Honours List.[2] Ferdinand's son Aaron currently plays for Harrow Borough in the Isthmian League. He takes part in charity events and played and scored in a Soccer Aid match at Old Trafford.
Contents |
Club career
Early career
Ferdinand started his career in non-league football, first at Southall and then moving to Hayes. He was spotted by Queens Park Rangers and moved there for £15,000.
QPR
Ferdinand made only a handful of appearances in his early QPR career. He had two loan spells at Brentford and Beşiktaş (in Turkey). He began to establish himself at QPR during 1991 and in his first full season in 1992-93, he bagged an impressive 24 goals in 42 games. He had a great career with Rangers, scoring 90 goals in 183 games, earning him the nickname 'Sir Les'. Much to the fan's disappointment, although not a surprise - he had actually been expected to leave the club at the end of the '93-'94 season - Ferdinand was sold to Newcastle in 1995 for £6 million, with Hayes receiving £600,000 of this (a huge sum for a non-league side) due to a sell-on clause agreed following his major move to QPR.
Newcastle United
He scored 29 goals in his first season with the Magpies, and significantly contributed to the side's getting within touching distance of the Premiership title in the 1995/96 season. Meanwhile, his absence precipitated Queens Park Rangers' relegation in the 95/96 season. His time at Newcastle made him one of the best strikers in the country at the time, and his strike partnership with Alan Shearer (for club and country) was one of the deadliest. He scored 50 goals in only 84 games at the club. Ferdinand was and indeed is still very highly thought of by Newcastle United and its fans earning him the title 'Sir Les'. He also received a standing ovation when he came on as a substitute at Alan Shearer's testimonial and subsequently scored.
Tottenham Hotspur
In 1997 Ferdinand was bought by Spurs, the club he supported as a boy, again for £6 million. Injuries heavily disrupted his first season at the club, but towards the end of the campaign he formed a good partnership with Jurgen Klinsmann, and the pairs' goals saved Spurs from relegation from the Premiership. Ferdinand helped Spurs win the League Cup in 1999, defeating Leicester City 1-0 in the final at Wembley, but injuries restricted him to just 12 goals in his first three seasons at the club. Despite this, Ferdinand's ability and high work-ethic made him a firm favourite among the Spurs fans, and he repaid their faith with 10 goals in the 2000/1 season and 15 the following year. He played in a second League Cup final for the club, against Blackburn Rovers, but was thwarted by three saves by Rovers' goalkeeper Brad Friedel as Spurs lost 2-1. Ferdinand scored the 10,000th goal in Premiership history, on December 15 2001 for Spurs against Fulham.
West Ham
Half-way through the 2002/2003 season he moved to West Ham, for whom his first goal was against Tottenham, but the club was relegated at the end of the season. Ferdinand joined Leicester on a free transfer at the beginning of the 2003/2004 season.
Leicester
Ferdinand showed his continuing class by scoring 14 Premiership goals, despite being 37 years old. After the Foxes were relegated at the end of that season he joined Bolton Wanderers
Bolton
Ferdinand memorably scored for Bolton Wanderers against their arch rivals Manchester United but left them on January 2, 2005. Four days later, Ferdinand signed with Reading. His contract at the club lasted until the end of the 2004/2005 season.
Watford
Ferdinand committed to non-contract terms with FA Premier League side Watford as both part-time player and coach.
International career
Ferdinand made his England debut in February 1993 against San Marino, scoring the final goal in a 6-0 victory at Wembley. For England, Ferdinand was capped 17 times,[2] scoring five goals. He was part of the Euro 96 and 1998 FIFA World Cup squads.[2] Even with Ferdinand having a very successful season with Newcastle and them only narrowly missing out on winning the league title in the 1995/96 season, Ferdinand surprisingly didn't get any action in Euro 96, and an injury meant he did not play a match in 1998.
Media career
Ferdinand was a pundit for BBC Sport, as well as also being a permanent contestant in a football quiz show called "Kick Off", shown on the cable TV channel ESPN. For the 2007 / 2008 season he will be a Pundit on Setanta Football's Premiership coverage. Ferdinand has posted a lap-time of 1:47.4 on the new Top Gear 'Star in a Reasonably Priced Car' feature on the popular BBC2 programme.
Personal life
Les Ferdinand is a qualified helicopter pilot and owns at least one helicopter, which he regularly uses. Ferdinand has for many years been thought to have been connected with the vandalism of the Blue Peter garden in 1984, however he has always rejected these claims. Although at one point he claimed to have "helped a few lads over the wall", he later claimed to have been joking.[3] In July 2007 Les visited a number of Sport Relief funded projects in Uganda
| Awards | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Alan Shearer |
PFA Players' Player of the Year 1996 |
Succeeded by Alan Shearer |
References
- ^ Weekend birthdays, "The Guardian", Guardian Newspapers Limited. (August 11, 2007). Accessed on August 15, 2007.
- ^ a b c Kate O'Hara. "Queen's Birthday Honours List", Yorkshire Post, 2005-06-11. Retrieved on 2006-10-06.
- ^ Doyle, Paul (2007-08-10). Small Talk: Les Ferdinand. Guardian Unlimited. Retrieved on 2007-08-15.
External links
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|---|---|
| 1 Seaman • 2 Campbell • 3 Le Saux • 4 Ince • 5 Adams • 6 Southgate • 7 Beckham • 8 Batty • 9 Shearer • 10 Sheringham • 11 McManaman • 12 Neville • 13 Martyn • 14 Anderton • 15 Merson • 16 Scholes • 17 Lee • 18 Keown • 19 L. Ferdinand • 20 Owen • 21 R. Ferdinand • 22 Flowers • Coach: Hoddle |
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